According to an NVIDIA rep at PC World, NVIDIA may well develop an x86 processor over the next 2 to 3 years. Don’t get carried away though. This won’t be a competitor to the high end offerings from AMD and Intel, an idea that has been feeding the rumour mill for some years now.

It would rather be competition for Intel’s Atom and designed for netbooks and other MIDs. Michael Hara, vice president of investor relations at NVIDIA, said that the Tegra was a “computer-on-a-chip” and that it would make sense to use the same approach for the x86 market within 2 to 3 years. Remember, Tegra works with an ARM processor which is not compatible with x86.

If this project gains momentum, it remains to be seen what solution NVIDIA will go for to create such a CPU. Will they buy the rights on an existing CPU or will they buy a company with x86 licenses so as to develop their own model? Wait and see!